This invention relates to extreme UV radiation generating devices. These devices are believed to play a great role for the upcoming “next generation” lithography tools of the semiconductor industry.
It is known in the art to generate EUV light e.g. by the excitation of a plasma of an EUV source material which plasma may be created by a means of a laser beam irradiating the target material at a plasma initiation site (i.e., Laser Produced Plasma, ‘LPP’) or may be created by a discharge between electrodes forming a plasma, e.g., at a plasma focus or plasma pinch site (i.e., Discharge Produced Plasma ‘DPP’) and with a target material delivered to such a site at the time of the discharge.
However, in both techniques a flow of liquid tin, which is supposed to be one of the potential target materials, is required, i.e. that certain parts of the EUV generating device are constantly exposed to relatively harsh chemical and physical conditions at elevated temperatures of greater than e.g. 200° C.
To further complicate the situation there is also the prerequisite that the tin needs to be free from contamination in order to secure a high quality of a pure tin plasma.